Clever moves from Frank Warren?
Its Saturday 25th February at the Motor Point Arena in Cardiff City, a jam packed house awaits the return of Britain’s only World Champion WBO light heavyweight Nathan Cleverly. “Every fighter deserves a homecoming” Steve Bunce comments in the studio and after the last match with rival Tony Bellew the crowd hopes this homecoming would be a more convincing win than his previous title defence.
The Challenger, USA’s Tommy Karpency is according to promoter Frank Warren “a tough rugged south paw who’s come to fight” we would soon see whether he would live up to this billing or provide the certain element of protection for the champion that the critics were enquiring about before the match had even begun.
Cleverly had been brimming with confidence in the build-up, he and his team had claimed him to be in better shape than ever, he was going to “put on an exciting display” , Warren had even claimed that the various Haters and Naysayers on Twitter were “beyond him” and that Cleverly would prove to be the sports new Welsh flag bearer. In the background Joe Calzaghe’s ghost still looms large and will again have to be exorcized in the ring as the inevitable comparisons are common place with the 24 year old Cleverly Fighting tonight.
Tommy Karpency enters the ring first to Jimi Hendrix’s version of the star spangled banner he hasn’t featured too much in the build up and looks to be only slightly larger than a Super Middleweight this should be an easy nights work for the 12st 6lb Cleverly and after entering to the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers looks up to the boxing gods to send the message to us all that he has no fear of his opponent. As Land of our fathers fills the air this defence could be one clever move if he were to put on that “knock out performance” as promised.
The fight gets off to a fast start from Cleverly as he opens with tremendous hand speed and super fire quick jabs leaving Karpency a little stunned and complaining to the referee for non existent fouls. Its clear even this early on, he will have all sorts of trouble dealing with the work rate of the marauding champion and a Cleverly victory looks almost certain. As the rounds progress, the challenger and his Trainer/Father seem even more desperate and as he leaves his stool for the 5th round and after repeated complaining to his corner, he looks like a beaten man. Not even his Father’s barked orders of “back his ass up” and “he can’t punch with you” can do him any good at this stage and it must seem pretty obvious to even his own corner that the words carry little truth.
Utilizing his hand speed advantage and throwing big body shots the hapless Karpency has to suck up the pain as Cleverly, continues to hurt his opponent. Unfortunately for Cleverly and the Partisan crowd it seems the challenger rather than going down has a severe case of journey man syndrome where surviving, not victory is the key and he is effectively putting this theory into practise in front of our very eyes. This should come as no surprise from a fighter who has sparred many times with legends including Roy Jones Jnr, but it surely begs the question that a fighter of that calibre would surely finish this challenger off early and should Cleverly be doing the same?
The fight ends predictably on points, Cleverly winning every round you don’t need Carol Vorderman sitting at ringside to help you add up the punch tally, all statistics point to a mismatch. Cleverly claims that Karpinsky is the hardest hitter he has ever faced, but the general view from everybody else is, he’s not big or good enough to test the champion and the point’s totals certainly tell the same story.
Where does Nathan go from here? Frank Warren and anyone else in his camp will undoubtedly tell you that he now has the world at his feet. A much bigger fight in June is a certainty, a potential match with former Calzaghe foe Bernard Hopkins could be on the horizon, if Hopkins were to beat Chad Dawson and with all wrestling moves omitted, be the most intriguing of the fights on the table. Jean Pascal or the little known Tavoris Cloud could also be in the frame but the Cleverest move in my opinion would be to set up an all Welsh dust up with Enzo Maccarinelli, who performed well on the under card stopping Ciaran Healy in the 2nd round. A match of this calibre would surely keep the fans happy, would surely sell out in Wales and would surely be a match Cleverly should win.
Cleverly may have been disappointed with his performance he did state at the weigh in “I’ve trained hard for the fight, my weight was great throughout the training camp and the results will show on the night with a knockout performance,” and although never fully achieving a “knock out performance” the Welsh were treated to an effective, if not explosive nights work. In the future the boxing public will want bigger and ultimately more exciting fights and I feel Cleverly will have to raise his game to win against some of the previously mentioned fighters. To conclude for the experience and the workout this fight produced and with bigger things to come, it could be just another chapter in a long line of clever moves by Frank Warren.
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